One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Milwaukee you can determine when it's possible to plant perilla by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Perilla

Frost tolerance for perilla:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant perilla until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant perilla in Milwaukee is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant perilla and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your perilla may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your perilla indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Milwaukee. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Milwaukee is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Milwaukee it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your perilla in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Milwaukee

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Milwaukee

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Milwaukee.